Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
The "pile of thousands of unedited books" mantra is a classic strawman. It's only relevant to readers who are are in the habit of buying unknown books/authors to read at random (utterly spin-the-wheel random). What percentage does that represent? Most readers usually have a pretty good idea they're going to like a book before they buy it. Not because of how it was published, but because a) they already know/like the author; or b) people have been talking about the book. The huge pile of dreck—that no one ever has to wade into if they don't want to—just isn't all that relevant.
The fact of the matter is: if you choose books to buy blindly, you're running the risk of wasting your money on a book that—regardless of how well it's edited—you may not like. That's true whether you buy tradpub or indie. And I for one, don't really consider spending my money on a beautifully edited book I didn't like, a win.
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I'm thinking you don't understand what a strawman argument is - From Wiki
"A straw man is a common type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on the misrepresentation of an opponent's argument.[1] To be successful, a straw man argument requires that the audience be ignorant or uninformed of the original argument.
The so-called typical "attacking a straw man" argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and then to refute or defeat that false argument ("knock down a straw man") instead of the original proposition.[2][3]
This technique has been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly in arguments about highly charged emotional issues where a fiery, entertaining "battle" and the defeat of an "enemy" may be more valued than critical thinking or understanding both sides of the issue.
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If you don't think that Amazon has a huge pile of drek in their ebook then try looking at the SF&F last 30 days by publication date - 5,575 books, including such classics as "Five Man Midget Death Squad" and "Have You Seen My Cat?". I recognized 3 authors in the first 100 books, then gave up.
I guess you have never heard of the concept of browsing for books to read.